6 Tips for Protecting Your Identity on Smartphones

How safe is your personal information on your smartphone? Do you think an identity thief would have an easy time gaining access to your personal information? The chances are that they probably will, especially since cell phone theft is a growing trend. In 2012 the Federal Communications Commission reported that cell phone robberies in U.S. major cities are drastically growing. Its reports found that robberies involving cell phones comprising 30 to 40 percent of all robberies in major cities.

Since cell phone theft is growing, especially in large cities, smartphone users are putting themselves more at risk for identity theft once their device is stolen. According to the results of a 2012 Javelin Strategy and Research identity theft study, smartphone users are more than 33 percent more likely to become a victim of identity theft. With the growing trend of smartphones, that number will more than likely continue to rise.

Considering smartphones are taking over nearly every aspect of our lives, it’s important that we know how to keep our identity protected from identity thieves. Here are some tips that can help you protect your identity while you use your smartphone and in the event that your smartphone is stolen.

1. Have a password-protected lock: This seems like the most obvious step you can take to protect your identity on your phone, however the results of the 2012 Javelin Strategy and Research found that 62 percent of phone users do not use a password on their home screen. Not using a password means that any stranger can pick up your phone and easily have access to all kinds of information — from your phone contacts to emails to your Facebook account.

It’s not realistic to believe that your information is completely protected by the password on the home screen, yet having that barrier still makes it more difficult for identity thieves to hack into your phone. When you’re choosing a password, it’s essential to select the longest and most difficult password. If you opt to set a numerical password, don’t select an easy one, such as 1-2-3-4, instead choose your favorite date — not your birth date — or your favorite number sequence. As long as this number is not directly connected to your identity, such as the last four digits of your Social Security number, then it should be a solid password.

Both iPhones and Androids offer the option to select a password with letters and numbers. This option is more secure than the numerical password because, frankly, identity thieves have more choices when it comes to guessing your password. When selecting a password it’s important that you choose one that is difficult and doesn’t only include letters or numbers. The worst password you can select is “password” or any variation of “password.” Since you have a whole keyboard to choose from, you should select a password that is longer than six characters and includes both numbers and letters.

Android users have the option to choose a pattern, which doesn’t offer as much security as the letter and number combo, it still offers solid option for security as long as you deselect “make patter visual.” When this feature is turned on it allows a colored line to follow the movement of your finger, which makes it easy for anyone to watch you draw your pattern. Deselecting this option will allow you to draw the pattern without a visual tracking.

2. Be cautious when connected to public wireless Internet: Do you ever go to the library or coffee shop, university, airport or library and connect your phone to their free Wi-Fi? It’s one of the easiest ways to save on data, however it could be jeopardizing your privacy. Even though these Wi-Fi hotspots are convenient, they often are not secure which means that other people using the hotspots can hack into your accounts and see what you’re doing on your device.

There are two ways that you, as a smartphone user, can protect yourself from these Wi-Fi hackers. One of the major ways is to not connect to the Wi-Fi network or only connect to password-protected Wi-Fi. However users should still remember that just because it’s protected it doesn’t mean it’s safe, especially if the public Wi-Fi posts the password publicly in the business or public area. If you decide to connect to the Wi-Fi, with or without password protection, the second thing you’d want to do is make sure that you only use encrypted websites. When a website is encrypted it means that the information is coded before it is sent, which makes it more difficult for hackers to get the information. A secure website begins with “https://” and you’d want to make sure that every page you visit begins with “https://,” not only the sign-in page.

3. Don’t save passwords in your phone: This is something that a lot of people are guilty of — it’s really convenient to just pull up an app or website and have your login information saved, right? One of the problems is that if your phone is ever stolen, all of your information is now accessible to the thief. Even if you only have auto-login into your Facebook account you are still putting your identity in danger because the thief can gather a lot of personal information from your account, and even post information or “deals” under your name to try to scam your friends. In this case, you’re better off sacrificing convenience for the safety of your identity.

4. Don’t have personal information easily accessible on your phone: Let’s face it — our lives require a lot of different numbers and passwords, so to make it easier on ourselves we keep all of these bank account numbers, credit card numbers and passwords on a notepad or as a contact in our phone. It’s kind of a foolish habit that we’ve adopted because it only takes one person to hack into our phone to have all of your personal information right at their fingers. Then, besides dealing with the repercussions of a stolen phone, you’ll also have to deal with the headache of changing the account numbers and passwords you stored on your phone. If you need to keep a log of that information, yet want to make sure it is better protected on your phone then you should store the information under a password-protected word document. It isn’t secure to keep such sensitive information on your phone, but keeping the information protected makes it a little more difficult for identity thieves to access it after they have stolen your phone.

5. Know what your applications have access to on your phone: When you download an app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store a list pops up and you have to select “I accept” or “OK” to complete the download of the app. This list is filled with the information the app has access to on your phone. Some of the information that a majority of popular apps have access to includes your device’s location, photos, contacts and calendar, among other information. It’s exciting when you purchase or download a new app, but you need to take a minute to double check what this app requires access to because it could very well be that the app will have access to more information that you’re comfortable with.

Besides double checking what the app has access to, you should also go into the app’s settings and disable the tracking ability. Tracking your location on Facebook can be fun, however it also might be putting your identity and safety in jeopardy. The problem with apps that track your device’s location is that you’re making a roadmap of your life — places you regularly go to and even the location of your home. By turning the location tracking off on the apps, you’re protecting your privacy from future phone hackers. If you opt to allow your apps to track your location then you are possibly making yourself more vulnerable to identity hacking.

6. Register device for “find my phone” app or feature: The “find my phone” app or feature is the one app that you should allow location tracking. These apps and features allow you to track your phone if it is lost, as well as completely wipe the memory from your phone in the event that it’s stolen. That’s an extremely helpful tool because then you don’t have to worry about if the phone thief will have access to all of the information on your phone. These apps and features are available on both iPhone and Android phones.

Smartphones are a large part of our everyday lives, and because so we’re loading them up with vast amounts of personal information. If our devices are stolen, we’re putting our identity in jeopardy because of all the unlimited information we allow these devices to store. Following these steps can help save your identity in the event that your smartphone is stolen. If your identity is stolen and you have signed up for an identity theft protection service, then can help you take the steps to recover your identity.